EL-FASHER, DARFUR — More than 2,000 civilians — mostly women, children, and the elderly — were executed in cold blood within just 48 hours as paramilitary forces stormed the city of El-Fasher, according to officials and human rights observers.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accused of some of the gravest atrocities in Sudan’s two-year conflict, captured the city after an 18-month siege, sealing its control over all of Darfur’s state capitals. El-Fasher’s fall marks a devastating turning point in a war already rife with civilian massacres.
Deliberate Ethnic Cleansing
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab reported evidence of “mass killings” following the city’s capture, citing video documentation and high-resolution satellite imagery.
The lab said the imagery revealed “a systematic pattern of deliberate ethnic cleansing” aimed at non-Arab communities — primarily the Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti. Analysts identified “human-sized bodies” near RSF positions surrounded by “reddish ground stains” suspected to be blood.
Bodies were also detected on the city’s outskirts, consistent with social media footage showing the execution of civilians attempting to flee. Additional satellite analysis revealed mass population displacement heading south, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian crisis.
Door-to-Door Killings
Army-aligned Joint Forces described the atrocities as “heinous crimes against innocent civilians,” saying RSF units conducted house-to-house raids between October 26 and 27, executing more than 2,000 unarmed residents.
Verified videos showed an RSF fighter — previously identified in other massacres — shooting a group of defenseless detainees at close range. Humanitarian experts said the events bore clear signs of a coordinated ethnic purge targeting non-Arab populations.
Witnesses and local relief workers said RSF soldiers moved “door to door,” killing entire families as plumes of smoke rose above neighborhoods cut off from all communication for weeks.
Fears of an Ethnic Purge
Rights organizations denounced what they described as “a systematic and intentional process” to eliminate Darfur’s indigenous non-Arab groups through mass killings, forced displacement, and scorched-earth tactics.
Impunity
“The world must act immediately to apply maximum pressure on the Rapid Support Forces and their backers — particularly the United Arab Emirates — to halt the killing,” Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab said, warning that the documented evidence points to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The European Union expressed “deep concern” over the escalating violence and urged all parties to de-escalate. “We are documenting every violation of international humanitarian and human rights law,” said EU foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni. “There can be no impunity.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned of “ethnically motivated violations and atrocities,” noting that his office had received “multiple, alarming reports of summary executions” in the city.
A City Starved Into Collapse
The massacre comes after nearly two years of siege that left El-Fasher a humanitarian wasteland. The United Nations had warned before the city’s fall that 260,000 civilians — half of them children — were trapped without access to food or medicine.
Displacement camps surrounding the city had already slipped into famine, with residents reported to be surviving on animal fodder.
The fall of El-Fasher gives the RSF unchallenged control over Darfur, tightening its hold on western Sudan and heightening fears of further atrocities as global attention drifts.
A War Without End
Since April 2023, Sudan has been consumed by a devastating power struggle between the army and the RSF that has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 15 million people. The United Nations describes it as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes, but the El-Fasher massacre marks a new and chilling stage in a conflict descending into outright genocidal violence.
